


written in stars and flames

by EllaYuki



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, NaLu Week 2016, Nalu Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-19 06:18:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7348534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllaYuki/pseuds/EllaYuki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>NaLu Week 2016 Ficlets - Seven moments in the life of Lucy and Natsu during and after the one year timeskip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> #1 - longing

she doesn’t admit it at first, mostly because she’s still angry, but she misses him. 

she misses him more and more every day and it hurts more than she thought it would.

she tries to move on with her life, as much as she can while still checking up on the guild members, but the lack of any news about him is both jarring and depressing.

even after she moves to crocus, leaving magnolia and all the painful memories it held behind, she still has days. 

days when she gets home expecting her apartment to be invaded by him (or any of their friends, really, but he's usually the main culprit), expecting him to whisk her off to a new adventure or just to laze about and playfully annoy her.

she occasionally wonders and imagines what he’s doing. what trouble he and happy are getting into. and she burns with the want to be there with them.

because as exciting as her life as a journalist for her favorite magazine is...

life without natsu is boring.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #2 - Reunion

it’s been a year and his stupid grin on his stupid face and the stupid way he calls her name like he never left her behind makes her smile.

and for a moment, she forgets all about the hurt, all about the loneliness, all about the  hollow feeling in her chest.

she smiles because his grin is just as infectious as always and her traitorous heart beats harder and she’d like to pretend that the heat enveloping her body is only because of his having set fire to the arena.

happy buries his face in her mostly naked chest, but she barely pays him any mind, save for gently hugging and petting him. her entire attention is focused on natsu, who effortlessly jumps up on the balcony next to her.

the hug he gives her, laughing an _i missed you_ into her ear as he does, is tight and warm and feels so much like home.

she buries her face into his neck, happy under her chin, and whispers, quietly, like a confession, _i missed you, too_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #3 - Admiration

she’s always admired him. when she wasn’t too busy being exasperated by him, that is. no. maybe even then. sometimes maybe especially then.

  
because he never gives up. even when the odds are against him, even the foe he’s facing is both horrendous and impossibly powerful (and she still shudders at the memory of acnologia), he gets back on his feet.

  
he gets back on his feet and he squares his shoulders and he gives more than he should be able to.

  
and that courage he has, that protective attitude, that unshakable will has moved her and changed her and shaped her into a stronger person than she’d ever hoped to become.

  
she’s never telling him any of that though.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #4 - Secrets

he doesn’t tell the guild. he still doesn’t 100% believe zeref’s crap story but the pain he felt when the book of e.n.d. was damaged was real enough to give him doubts.

he doesn’t tell anyone because, he thinks, on the off chance it’s actually true, they’ll be too busy worrying about him, when there’s a war happening. happy knowing is already too much.

and he firmly shuts his best friend down when he suggests they should at least tell lucy. happy tries pressing the issue, says she’s bound to find out one way or another, says she’s going to be more hurt if she finds out from someone else, that she’s gonna be angry to be left out again, but natsu thinks it’s better she doesn’t know, at least for now.

he tells himself he doesn’t want to worry her, to burden her, but he’s maybe a tiny bit afraid of her reaction.

because lucy might have forgiven most of the shit he’s pulled in the time they’ve known each other (though he doesn’t think she fully forgave him for leaving her behind last year), and she might have turned a blind eye or even, on occasion, enabled him. but this is so different.

it’s different, because not only is he zeref’s brother (which is weird in itself), but he might also be what they’ve been told is zeref’s ultimate creation, his strongest, and worst demon. and even lucy would be scared of that.

and the thought of lucy being scared, _especially of him_ , makes natsu want to burn something to the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #5 - Struggle

This whole war is playing with her damn nerves, honestly.

First, the First’s story strikes a nerve.

Then Natsu is being Natsu and goes off to face Zeref by himeslf (because of course he would) and comes back not only unconscious, but also with a tumor that would kill him.

Then she meets Aquarius again and finds out a bit more about her mother’s death and also gains the tentative friendship of what could have been her sister figure if life had been just a little bit different.

Which she promptly looses because of freaking Mest and then the world goes to hell in a great big flash of blinding light.

Her brain acknowledges Natsu jumping to protect her just before everything goes white hot and she feels nothing but pain and his arms holding her to him in a vice grip.

Her mind and emotions are all over the place for minutes, a constant struggle between pushing him away because he’s holding her too tight and she’s already in pain, and trying to get closer, because Natsu means safety.

And then the heat and the pain subside, and she feels like she’s falling through the sky. It takes her a few seconds to realize that they actually are.

And then Natsu’s grip on her shifts, and they’re twisting through the air so he’s underneath her.

Seconds later they’re hitting the ground and rolling down a hill and she’s having a moment of serious deja vu. _‘At least this time she’s not naked’_ is the thought that passes through her head for a split second.

When they finally stop, she’s so dizzy she might throw up, and Natsu is lying on top of her and is still holding her like she might break. Or disappear.

For a few moments, all that can be heard is their ragged breathing. Her heart won’t stop pounding and she still feels like her body’s about to combust, and she’s not entirely sure it’s only from having almost died.

Then Natsu sits up in a fit of confused rage, hands planted firmly and obliviously on her breasts and Lucy just feels embarrassed.

Yes, her poor nerves won’t last long.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #6 - Climax

in an awful twist no one foresaw, zeref and acnologia had fused together.

and it had taken each and every one of fiore’s mages throwing every last bit of their magic at the monster to stall it enough for lucy to cast an ancient, celestial spell to hopefully destroy it once and for all, with the help of spirit king.

the spell took every scrap of magic she could muster and then some. she’s never used something so powerful before, never even thought she might. not even urano metria was of this magnitude. she’d fallen to her knees earlier, preferring to concentrate on casting rather than standing.

and for a moment, she wondered if she’d survive casting it.

she cast that thought aside.

from her left, she could hear, vaguely, over the sounds of gathering magic, natsu screaming his throat raw and banging his fists against the invisible barrier that had created around her as a side effect of the spell. 

she risked a glance his way, making sure not to lose her concentration, and what she saw almost made her lose her breath.

natsu was on his knees, fists bloody against the barrier, tears running free from his eyes, a look of utter fear and devastation on his face.

the need to comfort him was overwhelming but she knew she couldn’t. not without risking this chance at saving everyone. she wanted to soothe him, tell him everything would be alright, but she knew better. natsu wouldn’t just accept that. he wouldn’t just accept her sacrifice.

she gives him one last smile, and then she stands, her tattered clothes turning into a new celestial dress, and pushes the last of her magic into the ball of magic between her fingers.

the last thing she hears as she throws the magic at the abomination, is natsu screaming her name.

and then the world goes white and she hears no more.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #7 - The End

his throat is raw. his fists are bleeding. his heart stutters in his chest. and her feels hollow.

the dust is settling and he’s still partly blind, but he’d rather be, because he can’t. he can’t look at her. he’d rather believe the reason he can’t hear her heartbeat is because his ears are still ringing from the roar of the spell she cast. but he can’t lie to himself.

he can’t hear her heart anymore and he’s not ready to see her so still again. not again.

fresh tears fall down his cheeks again.

the wind stills, finally, and the air clears and there she is, lying on the ground. motionless. 

he drags himself to her side (because he’s so exhausted and in so much pain, he can’t even stand anymore).

there’s not a scratch on her. she was full of scratches and bruises and dirt and blood before she started casting. but now, other than her dress being a bit torn, there’s no trace of anything on her skin and he can’t understand it. she’s paler than he’s ever seen her but other than that, she looks like she’s sleeping. he’s seen her sleep so many times, in her own bed or otherwise, that it’s an image thoroughly imprinted on him, just like her smile.

it’s weird, even more so because he still has the image of the other lucy, dead in the rubble of mercurius’ halls, burned on his eyelids. that lucy hadn’t looked like she was sleeping. hadn’t looked so peaceful. every hardship and loss had been etched in the lines on her faces even in death.

he lifts a hand to brush the hair off of her face, traces trembling fingers down her cheek to her lips. he calls her name. asks her to wake up. pleads. flicks her nose and jokes that he’ll light a fire under her butt if she doesn’t open her eyes. still, nothing.

he lowers his head to her shoulder, face to her skin, and drags his weary body close to hers. the hand he’d had on her face he lowers to grasp her right (marked, still there) hand.

and for a while, he knows nothing but the pain, the agony of his loss. the entire world could disappear and he wouldn’t notice, lost as he is in his suffering.

which is why he only thinks it’s his imagination when he feels her fingers move, her chest rise slowly. which is why he thinks it’s only his imagination when he hears her softly calling his name.

which is why he can’t really believe his own eyes when he raises them and sees lucy’s own brown ones looking back at him.

he drags himself up a bit, so his face is level with hers and touches their foreheads together. he still grips her fingers.

and in that moment he knows, with absolute certainty, that everything will be alright. lucy’s alive and the world has been saved and everything will be alright.


End file.
